What These Former White House Press Secretaries Are Doing Today

The role of the White House press secretary has only existed since the 1920s, when George Akerson became the first press secretary under President Herbert Hoover. In the early days, the press secretary was someone that reporters could turn to with questions, a point person meant to provide information about what the administration was spending time on. They weren't necessarily expected to be media-ready figures themselves; after all, television hadn't been invented yet.

These days, however, press secretaries are often some of the most visible members of an administration. They spend their time arguing with an increasingly adversarial press, and as their quips and comebacks go viral online, press secretaries become minor celebrities in their own right. See, for example, the interest in President Donald Trump's current press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who has flaunted her killer legs more than once.

Not everyone likes this new facet of their job. Ari Fleischer, for example, who served under President George W. Bush, told The Miller Center that he would stop televising briefings. "There is something about the massive exposure that also can coarsen democracy," he said, "and that's at work in the House, the Senate, and the White House." When they leave the White House, some press secretaries try to dial back their own exposure, going to work in the corporate sphere. Others hold on to their relevancy, finding jobs in media on the other side of the podium. Read on to learn what these former press secretaries are doing today.

Ari Fleischer was George W. Bush's first press secretary. He was the one responsible for press briefings when 9/11 hit, guiding the country's media through the administration's response to that tragedy and the subsequent War on Terror. Fleischer later told The George W. Bush Oral History Project that he understood his job differently than previous press secretaries had. "It's a TV show. The briefing's not a briefing anymore. It's not a serious sharing of information," he said, noting networks often carried briefings live now instead of actually reporting on the information they'd obtained. "It was always on my mind that I was talking directly to the people, not just the reporters in the room ... It's a jockeying room now. It's a TV show."

As of this publication, Fleischer runs his own communications company, the aptly-named Ari Fleischer Communications. "He has worked for a variety of major companies and leading sports leagues, teams, schools, and individual athletes as well," the website says.

Fleischer has also remained a part of the political media ecosystem, working frequently as a contributor to Fox News. Occasionally, his loyalty to his former boss has caused controversy, as in 2019 when he defended the decision to go to war in Iraq under false pretenses. "It's a myth that Bush lied," Fleischer insisted to the Washington Post. A veteran named Brandon Friedman responded, "If I were Ari Fleischer ... I would try to have respect for the dead, knowing the role I played kicking off his war."

Dana Perino was George W. Bush's final press secretary, helping shape the administration's response to crises like the housing bubble burst and the looming Great Recession. "I did have this unique place in history. I was the first Republican woman to be a White House press secretary," Perino noted in an interview with Wharton. "I was in the administration for over seven years, so I saw a lot."

After Bush left office, Perino's career transformation led her to Fox News. "I knew I wanted to continue to have a voice in the debate and to represent conservatives in a persuasive, gracious way. And I felt some need to continue to defend President Bush," she wrote in a memoir called "And the Good News Is...: Lessons and Advice From the Bright Side" (via Cosmopolitan). At first, she was just a recurring guest on Sean Hannity's show, then she began co-hosting "The Five." She had her own show called "The Daily Briefing with Dana Perino," and she now co-hosts a show called "America's Newsroom" as of this publication.

As the first Republican woman to be a press secretary, Perino has continued advising the women who have followed in her place. "I always keep my advice to press secretaries private," she told USA Today, remarking that she thinks current press secretary Karoline Leavitt has a bright future. "She's a fierce loyalist, and you probably want her on your side, I would say," Perino said.

Robert Gibbs was the first press secretary to serve under Barack Obama. He'd been a longtime aide to the president even before his election, and in fact, Obama borrowed Gibbs's tie to wear during the 2004 Democratic National Convention speech where he secured his political future. On Gibbs's last day at the briefing room podium, Obama surprised his press secretary by returning the tie he'd borrowed some seven years earlier, preserved under glass alongside photos of them both wearing it. "I wanted this on the record, on camera that I am finally returning Robert's tie," the president joked (via PBS).

After he left the administration, Gibbs picked up a number of gigs. In 2012, he joined the Board of Directors of Yelp. CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said in a press release, "His extensive experience in strategy, communications and policy will be invaluable to Yelp as we continue to build our company." In 2015, he was appointed Global Chief Communications Officer at McDonald's. "Robert [is a] highly-respected, talented leader who will bring a wealth of experience and outside perspective to McDonald's as we build a more modern, progressive burger company," the company said in a press release.

Most recently, Gibbs has been hired to lead PR at Warner Bros. Discovery. CEO David Zaslav told his staff (via CNN), "His incredible track record of advancing strong communications and public affairs strategies will make Robert an asset to WBD as we focus on nurturing our internal culture."

Jay Carney took over the press secretary job from Robert Gibbs, serving under Barack Obama. He would ultimately control the podium for more than three years, which was the longest time anyone had been press secretary since the 1990s. On his last day, Carney sat down with Stephen Colbert to discuss the job. He told Colbert (via Mediaite) that he regretted occasionally sparring with reporters, reflecting, "When somebody's getting riled up and filled with righteous indignation, and if they're really obnoxious, and you get a little rattled and you sort of engage. You finish the exchange thinking, 'I won that. I killed.' And then you look at it later on TV and you realize that nobody actually sees the entire exchange. They just see you wagging your finger or looking like a jerk." Of course, several years after Carney's tenure, getting heated with reporters would seem to be the entire job.

After he left the White House, Carney joined Amazon as their Senior Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs. He told Axios that it was a difficult transition, recalling, "In initial meetings, I was wondering what the hell they were talking about with all the jargon and acronyms. But then I got smarter about it."

Since 2022, Carney has been running Global Policy, Communications, and Crisis Management for AirBnB. He was excited by AirBnB's willingness to house refugees amid the war in Ukraine, telling Axios, "I saw the decision-making speed of Airbnb in that moment, and I found that exciting."

Josh Earnest was the final press secretary to serve in the White House under Barack Obama. By that point in the president's tenure, the press briefings had become increasingly confrontational, and Earnest was known to have likened his job to "catching javelins" from the press. As Obama prepared to leave the White House in 2017, Earnest sat down with PBS to reflect on his time behind the podium. "When it's time to get to work, [I'll miss] feeling this intense motivation to get the job done and get it done the right way," he said. "There's something that really stokes the internal fires about this job, that it's hard to imagine how that ever gets replaced, if it ever does."

As the Obama administration gave way to the first Trump era, Earnest joined NBC and MSNBC as a contributor. NBC News President Noah Oppenheim and MSNBC President Phil Griffin told staff in a memo (via The Hill), "With his wealth of experience and insight, Josh will be a great addition to our roster of contributors."

Like many other past press secretaries, Earnest has also sought to stoke that internal fire by hopping over to the corporate world. As of this publication, he's the Executive Vice President of Communications and Advertising for United Airlines. PR Week published an article titled "How Josh Earnest Has United Airlines Back On Solid Ground," which led Earnest to remark to PRovoke Media, "...the headline writer was giving me way too much credit, but I'll take it."

From the moment Sean Spicer took to the podium at his first press briefing and defended Donald Trump's lies about the size of the crowd at his inauguration, it was clear that the country had entered a new era of what it meant to be a press secretary. Spicer later told NPR that he regretted getting off on the wrong foot on his very first day on the job, reflecting that even Trump was disappointed with how adversarial things had immediately gotten. "I sort of thought I knew what he wanted and went and did it," he said. "And I'll be honest, if I could have a do-over on that day, I'd take it every day of the week." Many of Spicer's comments were later debunked.

Spicer only remained press secretary for six months, ultimately parlaying his time at the podium into an ongoing career as a commentator and media personality. He competed on "Dancing With The Stars" in 2019, and his time in the competition became a sort of culture war proxy, as figures like Donald Trump Jr. urged Republicans to vote for Spicer to remain on the show despite his poor scores. "Guys, get this going again for Spicy," he wrote on X. "The meltdown the Hollywood types keep having when he wins with your votes is soooo worth the time." In 2020, he was even given the chance to ask a question during a press briefing, this time as a reporter for Newsmax. As of this publication, he has a YouTube show called The Sean Spicer Show.

After Sean Spicer left the White House, Sarah Huckabee Sanders became press secretary. She was a controversial figure behind the podium, frequently sparring with reporters. The media noted that Huckabee Sanders' relationship with the truth was questionable, to say the least, leading to a major controversy when comedian Michelle Wolf roasted the press secretary at the 2018 White House Correspondents' Dinner. "She burns facts and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye," Wolf joked (via YouTube). "Like, maybe she's born with it, maybe it's lies. It's probably lies." The country was soon embroiled in a debate about the joke, arguing whether Wolf had criticized Huckabee Sanders for her looks or for her lies.

Huckabee Sanders changed through the years, and by the time she left the White House, she was ready to run for office of her own. In 2022, Huckabee Sanders was elected Governor of Arkansas, the first woman to hold the position. "I know that Arkansas can be first, and I'm committed to being the leader who takes us there," she said in her acceptance speech (via the Associated Press).

Governor Huckabee Sanders has continued to be a controversial figure. Rex Nelson, who was the policy and communications director for her father, Governor Mike Huckabee, told Politico that he's frustrated by her focus on her national profile. He said, "We are in a weird position of having a governor in this state who doesn't seem to have much interest in governing Arkansas."

After Sarah Huckabee Sanders left the White House, Stephanie Grisham was named Donald Trump's next press secretary. The administration's relationship with the media had disintegrated so severely that Grisham holds the unusual distinction of being the first press secretary to hold no press briefings whatsoever, instead acting purely as a talking head on various conservative news outlets. Based on her emails to reporters who reached out directly to see what she'd been up to, she seemed to feel that speaking directly to reporters was beneath her. For example, the Washington Post ran a "Grisham Watch" column, and when they emailed her for comment, she sent a very terse reply. In addition to briefly saying she met with President Trump and her comms team, Grisham wrote: "As of this moment I have eaten two saltine crackers and had three cups of coffee ... I've used the restroom twice."

Grisham holds another interesting distinction, too. Whereas most former press secretaries have gone on to media roles defending their former bosses, Grisham is now an outspoken critic of Trump. Grisham claims Trump has nasty slang for his fans in private, and she endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, speaking out at the Democratic National Convention against Trump. "He has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth. He used to tell me, 'It doesn't matter what you say, Stephanie — say it enough and people will believe you,'" Grisham revealed (via NBC News). "But it does matter — what you say matters."

Stephanie Grisham left the press secretary job in April 2020, because the country simply couldn't survive not having regular press briefings anymore. The COVID-19 pandemic had hit fast and hard, and Kayleigh McEnany took over the press secretary job in an effort to keep the media informed about Donald Trump's handling of the situation. Trump frequently joined McEnany at the podium, taking over as she sparred with the press about why the administration wasn't doing more to protect Americans from the deadly virus. "It is hard to describe the sheer joy I felt when I learned that I would be President Trump's next White House press secretary," she later told Fox News, claiming that God had led her to the podium. "The years and years of hard work and sacrifice were culminating in an opportunity to communicate the Trump agenda directly to the American people."

McEnany's loyalty to the president paid off, even though she only held the job for his last year in office. As of this publication, she's the co-host of "Outnumbered," a show on Fox News. "Kayleigh's unique background in politics and law coupled with her experiences confronting women's health challenges and life as a new mom will add robust insight to 'Outnumbered,'" Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott told Variety. "We are delighted to welcome her back to Fox News where she began her media career."

Jen Psaki was President Joe Biden's first press secretary, capturing the attention of the country as she returned the daily press briefing to the less-contentious ritual it had been before. Psaki stuck with the position for more than a year before leaving to focus on her family. "This is the greatest job I've ever had. Maybe the greatest job I [will] ever have. I don't know," she told Fox News (via People). "And it has surpassed my expectations in so many ways in that I've learned something new every single day."

Since then, she became the host of "The Briefing with Jen Psaki," a primetime MSNBC show. In an interview with NPR, Psaki said she's been able to make the show her own, which means being honest with her viewers about her opinions too. "I have points of view. I'm never going to go on television and tell people I don't care about abortion rights," she said. "And I have never been asked to be anything but my authentic self here, which I very much appreciate."

As questions continued to swirl about Biden's mental competency during his presidency, Psaki insisted that the president she worked for during that portion of her career timeline wasn't the same man as the one who ended his term two years later after a disappointing debate performance. "I spent time with him every day," she said, "and I'd never seen the person who was on that debate stage."

After Jen Psaki left, Karine Jean-Pierre stepped up to the podium as Joe Biden's next press secretary. In doing so, she made history as the first Black woman and the first openly queer person to be press secretary. Announcing her hiring, Biden said in a statement (via the New York Times), "[She] not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris administration on behalf of the American people."

Jean-Pierre was a fierce defender of Biden's tenure in the White House, even as it became clear that the majority of the party did not want him to run for re-election. She's faced criticism for sticking by her boss, including during a Q&A at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School (via C-SPAN). "That was shocking, shocking," she said about party infighting. "Instead of coming together to really be unified and trying to figure out how do we save our democracy or fight back, that's what I was seeing. That's what we decided to do for three weeks and [it] was truly unfortunate. I think it hurt us more than folks realize to have done that."

Since Biden left the White House, Jean-Pierre has continued to work with him as an aide. Upon hearing the news that Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, she wrote on Instagram, "Thinking of the President and Dr. Biden. Boss, you've got this."